The Urban Retro Playlist

I'll start by saying this year it seems like Cupid shot a number of arrows at artist looking at Kendrick this year as there was always that part for him to come in with the type of freedom on a verse like jumping off a skyline to the sidewalks with that I don't wanna know the repercussion attitude because those moments you feel the goosebumps as your senses come alive like you're attending a party when your parents specifically said No More Parties or you're a valet and someone pulls up in a double r ghost so you get the holy key.
I think the preambles (like the one I did on my first Kendrick playlist) I do normally are becoming monotonous (i'm not sure this is necessarily better but it was worth a try) so I decided to try something different to describe all the songs Kendrick was featured on this year, He's had a good year if  I might add. I think something that really pushed me more to do it was reading the holiday edition issue of gentlemen's quarterly which he graced the cover in some luxury fur (#pretentiousgoals) and got interviewed by Rick Rubin.

I actually got goosebumps listening to a number of the songs in the playlist; The way the vocals and the production were on That Part took me to another dimension, the verse on Maroon 5's Don't Wanna Know was a perfect match(it made me question the selection to feature Wiz Khalifa on their 2012 hit Payphone all over again) and Holy Key which was a rematch of Big Sean's Control.
Hope you enjoy the playlist and find some new favorites on it.

I found out about this song through my friends referral after one of his SoundCloud explorations (thanks Wole) and I've been hooked since I heard it. I want to say before I continue that Saint Jhn is my spirit animal, there's just this laid back and carefree free vibe he exudes that I find so appealing.
The song explores a different side of Urban music that hasn't particularly been categorized, this could be basis to form a new genre of music. It may fall into trap but it isn't exactly just trap it's much more soothing, slower paced and lacks the overly energetic qualities. It's more on the tempo and posses a couple of similarities with Kid Cudi's timeless classic Pursuit of Happiness.
I especially love how different and effortless the sounds is; from the vocals, to the minimal instruments, tempo and the general solemn feel. I feel like the way he has found his identity gives him the ability to impose, in the sense that there's no struggle and there is some calm air of authority from his entire sound.

I must re-establish that Craig David's Born To Do It album was fire. One of my first post's here was on a Craig David Song. I realized when I was younger and was forced to like some songs I didn't actually understand as much most times (I'm sure i've said this before), then when I get to listen to them now they blow my mind.
Then for some reason the tune of this song was in my head all through a period and I actually didn't know the name . Well some time later a friend of mine played it, I got the name and I was hooked.
This particular song is more to the progressive side, one of the considerably danceable Craig David songs. From his songs he's usually in situations with
the female gender. In this particular song he was already in a relationship, some other lady fancied him and was relentless going after him.
What made the song it for me personally were the drums, the rattle sounds, the strings in the hook and what I suspect to be a organ that transitions late in the verses.

The song of the day is How Great by Chance the Rapper of his mixtape Colouring Book.
It  a cover of the actual song "How Great" which is a popular worship song, he featured Jay Electronica, vocals from the Chicago children's choir most importantly his cousin Nicole.
I actually started playing the song frequently and added the song to my morning playlist after watching the video. I mean I thought it was good when I heard it off the mixtape for the first time but it just didn't stick at the time.
It has this urban gospel vibe which was pretty much the general theme of the album. I began to really appreciate it even more mostly because I payed a lot more attention to the happenings in the background. I especially enjoyed the abrupt pauses especially the one after Chance's part, then the use of the vocoder after the choirs voices. It's steadily paced one almost any rapper would enjoy riding and Chance being Chance did justice to the track so did Jay Electronica who's part I enjoyed as well.
Most of all it's a song that reverences God's eminence, you know it gets you in the mood of gratitude and that is one of the reasons I like the songs so much. There's a lot to be grateful to God for, Chance recognizes that and so do I.  

So about a week ago (doing the shmoney that Bobby Shmurda dance), I met up with my very good friends who were also classmates in school to play basketball. We actually played at least once very week back in school. We hadn't seen and played in a while so we decided to set a date to play at the Surulere stadium. I came along with my camera, and took some random pictures of us warming up and what not.
The song of the day Jumpman by Drake and Future from their Joint project What A Time To Be Alive which is actually one of thier most successful song off the tape. Jumpman which is an alias for the greatest basketballer Michael Jordan.
I felt it was only elaborate to pick this sound for the visuals. I actually had to listen to this tape numerous times to warm up to the whole trap sound generally, but I totally loved it right after the initial reservations &  inhibitions.
The song is filled with a number of basketball references, generally laid back and is just a generally chilled Trap sound. I feel like it was a no brainer for Drake to sell/ promote his collaboration with the sneaker brand which was a major deal for him at the time.

The Song of the day is D.D by The Weeknd off Trilogy, which is actually a cover of Michael Jackson's 1987 classic Dirty Diana off his Bad album.
I for one was in another dimension when I listened to the Weeknd's version. The instruments we just so sublime; the drums were hit harder, the general sound was so electric and the vocals were probably even as good.
I've been listening to this song for the last couple of day and I've been on able to get it out of my head, it embodies that entirely unconventional sound from Kissland which makes me consider it his best body of work.
The song is a story about a siren who's generally infatuated with musicians more or less and how he's trying to escape her perils.
The strings from the original version is something I actually miss on the song it gave it this whole rockstar effect though I'm not so sure it would have been congruous with this version.

When some photos began to surface of Falz and Simi about a month ago I
wondered what the publicity was for, because I was pretty certain something
was coming afterwards(I mean you can't just come and go and just do
photoshoot for nothing, though you can but that's not the point).
Shortly after the announced that they were releasing a joint project, I was
absolutely certain I was going to listen to it. For some reason I thought it
would just be good but not great, was I wrong.
The album was properly titled as the duo posses the type of chemistry that
Timbaland and Timberlake posses in my opinion. At no point did I spot signs
of struggle with their transitions between verses. Also, the album was very
comical, filled witty lines and there were constant variations in tempo and
the genre.
Simi's performance and vocals were very commendable as she showed versatility
approaching her verses differently from doing a little rap verse like in the
song "Want To" to exhibiting her vocal prowess in the song "Chemistry".
Versatility wasn't limited to just her performance but to the entire project
as the themes differed in most of the songs while trying to maintain elements
of the general vibe. Like the song "Shake Body" which particularly targets a
(Yoruba) marriage audience, which is a topic which Falz talks about which I
established in this post here.

Well I had a cool time last weekend, went on a road trip to my old school which you can read about here and here. I took some pictures during the weekend which you'll find at the bottom of this post.
Anyway, it was the weekend and one of the songs which I played during the Trips was Hymn For The Weekend featuring Beyonce by one of my favorite band who i've written about a couple of times here. This song like Adventure of A Lifetime is pretty progressive which is not generally their orthodox sound and the sounds in my opinion can easily be grooved to there's a lot more energy to it and it consists of some earthy elements in the background.
Also the harmony when both Chris Martin and Beyonce's vocals merge is something I enjoy so much. Then when I think of what instruments were used to produce the song i'm even more amazed by the general sound for apparent simple instruments.
Something I also found amazing yet may not appear so far fetched was how the song was created from a simple thought. When I was doing my research I found out that the song was actually conceptualized in a bar, a thought crossed Chris' mind after wishing he had one of those late night club songs like Turn Down for what or something Flo-rida would do.
Then He thought: "I’d like to have a song called 'Drinks on Me' where you sit on the side of a club and buy everyone drinks because you're so fucking cool," Martin recalled. "I was chuckling about that, when this melody came, 'drinks on me, drinks on me', then the rest of the song came out. I presented it to the rest of the band and they said, 'We love this song, but there's no way you can sing "drinks on me."' So that changed into 'drink from me' and the idea of having an angelic person in your life. Then that turned into asking Beyoncé to sing on it."

The thought was reference from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn_for_the_Weekend